My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 530

It was a quick service.

Regular 택배 [Korean postal service] took too long and had a risk of getting lost. Going there directly could mean a sting operation. The so-called ‘drop-off’ method, where drugs are hidden in a secret location and the location is revealed, is safe, but if you’re really unlucky, someone might steal them.

Like someone who bought it before, or if they happen to be cleaning. But quick service is 1:1 delivery, fast, and they don’t check the contents. So, hiding it in a book or other item isn’t difficult.

“The best way to ensure safety is a drop-off plus quick service.”

“In that case, the police have no way to track it, right?”

“That’s right. And the quick service delivery person knows that too.”

So, most quick service delivery people don’t listen to the next words when they receive a suspicious item. For example, ‘Please take this item from this location to this address.’ They cut it off the moment they receive it.

“Huh? They don’t report it?”

“If they report it? Do you think the police will protect them? Their trust in the Korean police isn’t that strong.”

“Tsk.”

“How many times have the Korean police screwed up?”

The police neglect cases, and when the victim catches the criminal, they take credit for it. They file a lawsuit against the informant to pocket the reward money. The organization has a structure where giving gloves to a homeless person in winter gets a higher performance evaluation than catching 100 thieves.

“Naive people who believe in anonymous tips can’t live in Korea.”

“I guess that’s true.”

Moreover, if it’s drugs, there will be dangerous guys swarming behind it 100%. Would they really report it?

“But reporting to the police sounds plausible.”

Since anonymous tips aren’t effective, this method is good for making a truly anonymous tip.

“Plus, the destination is the police station anyway.”

“The quick service delivery person won’t suspect anything, right?”

“That’s right.”

Of course, they were tricked into delivering it.

“Yeah, they must have been tricked into delivering it.”

Park Do-joon blankly leaned against the bench, looking at the ceiling, and said.

“Let’s go.”

“Huh? Aren’t we looking for something here?”

“I found everything I needed. The National Forensic Service searched it like crazy anyway, what would be left? And if the quick service really just came and took the item, there wouldn’t be anything.”

“I guess that’s true. The second location is the subway station. Someone wearing a mask and hat went and left it there.”

“Let’s go there.”

Park Do-joon headed there. According to the second quick service delivery person, they took the item from a locker in the subway station. And there were many people there.

The locker is currently in use.

“It would be hard for anything to be left behind.”

“That’s right. There’s nothing there either.”

“Hmm, what about the CCTV?”

“You saw it. There’s nothing.”

“I’m asking for your opinion. Why do profilers work in two teams? It’s to integrate each other’s opinions and exchange information, isn’t it?”

“Uh, um… I still don’t know.”

Of course, the person putting the item in and the person taking it out are different on the CCTV.

“They’re not the same person from the start.”

“We should probably assume they used a third party.”

“Yes.”

There’s no video from the first incident, but there are videos from the second and third. And of course, the National Forensic Service had compared the videos and found conclusive evidence that the people delivering the items were not the same person.

“The quick service delivery person is the person involved.”

“Yes, so there’s nothing to track.”

In fact, all three are registered as quick service delivery people and make a living from it, so there’s nothing particularly strange about it.

“Hmm, let’s go to the third place.”

“Right away?”

“I’ve seen everything I need to see.”

Park Do-joon took Lee Ji-soo to the third location.

“This is a locker too.”

Another locker in a subway station in another station. And they took the item from that locker in the same way, so the police can’t identify anything.

“The video is no different, is it?”

“It’s different from the video.”

Park Do-joon said, looking around.

“The flow of people by time, the reactions of the people around, the exact location, what’s around it, etc.”

“I guess that’s what’s important in profiling.”

In movies or dramas, they don’t even go to the scene and just rattle off things? That means they’re either really good or just talking nonsense.

“But still, there’s nothing special.”

“Yeah, there’s nothing special. Let’s go back.”

Park Do-joon carefully checked the surroundings and headed to the police station.

On the way to the police station, Lee Ji-soo tilted her head and asked.

“Detective, do those scenes mean anything?”

“They do.”

“In what way?”

“The criminal has undergone a significant change, whether it’s a change of heart or something else.”

“Huh?”

“Where was the first place?”

“It was a pavilion in the park. Ah, that’s right. There’s no consistency.”

If they sent the item from the first park, what they’re concerned about is surveillance systems like CCTV [closed-circuit television].

“There’s definitely nothing like that in the park.”

“But from the next time, they suddenly changed the location to a locker.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Subway stations have a lot of people and a lot of CCTV. Even though they’re using a third party to put the items in the lockers, it’s running in a completely different way from the first method.

“So, we should assume something serious happened.”

“What could that be?”

“I don’t know? I think it’s a failure.”

“Failure? Does that mean they couldn’t kill someone?”

Park Do-joon shook his head at that.

“No, if that were the case, a report would have come in or they would have been caught. Maybe it’s a delivery failure.”

“Delivery failure?”

Lee Ji-soo tilted her head and asked at Park Do-joon’s words. But before he could answer, they arrived at the police station.

The police station was in an uproar.

“Where have you guys been? I was about to call you, even though I wasn’t supposed to.”

“I said we were going to check the scene. What’s going on?”

At Park Do-joon’s words, Jo Sang-gyu raised his voice.

“Another victim has been found.”

“Another victim? Are you talking about the third victim?”

“It’s uncertain.”

“…Uncertain?”

Jo Sang-gyu said awkwardly at Lee Ji-soo’s words.

“The shoes are different.”

“The shoes are different, but the method of the crime is the same.”

“That’s right.”

Excessive bleeding. Missing shoes.

But the shoes worn by the body found at the scene are not the shoes that went missing this time.

“Is it a copycat crime?”

Jo Sang-gyu answered Lee Ji-soo’s question and moved.

“We have to go. Hurry. Everyone is being dispatched there.”

Jo Sang-gyu said in a loud voice.

“It’s probably not a copycat crime.”

Park Do-joon turned around again and went outside, saying. And Lee Ji-soo’s face hardened when she understood the meaning.

“It’s a delivery accident.”

“That’s right.”

The reason the criminal changed. It must have been a delivery accident.

“We’ll know when we go.”

As expected, the scene was in the mountains where people rarely go.

“They managed to find it.”

“Ah, there seems to be a prayer site inside.”

“Ah~!”

There are many places where shamans’ prayer sites are located, but there are also places where they are not.

“Then it would be realistically difficult for ordinary people to find it.”

“I guess so. Maybe this is a sudden variable.”

The reason why the bodies have been easily found so far is simple. They’re not just sending the shoes. The criminal sends the location with them. Of course, they don’t write it by hand or print it to avoid identification.

They use newspapers in a classic way to create a kind of code and send it. The code changes every time, so the ‘fourth place’ that they learned about as the ‘third’ has not yet been found.

That’s why it’s realistically impossible for the police to track them.

“Move aside.”

Park Do-joon, watching the paramedics slowly lowering the body, shook his head and turned his gaze.

“A body has never been found in this way in this case.”

Park Do-joon said, looking around. There’s no road at all and it’s not visible from the outside. How likely is it that someone would enter such a place?

“That prayer site must be a very special case.”

“How do you know that?”

“Do you think they just go to pray with their bodies?”

In folk beliefs, a prayer site is a process of receiving help from gods who are located in each region. And folk beliefs have a clear rule that there is no such thing as give and take, that is, nothing is free.

“Even if they’re acquaintances, they say that a shaman’s free fortune-telling is ineffective or doesn’t work well. Even between humans, wouldn’t they offer sacrifices to the gods? All religions have a process of offering sacrifices, even if the form is different.”

Modern Christianity and Catholicism still have that process alive, even though the sacrifice has been replaced by money.

“There are more sacrifices than you think, and there are also many tools that go into prayer.”

Gongs, drums, janggu [Korean traditional drum], etc., it depends on the situation of the prayer, but in any case, it is very rare to come and go with just the body.

“But coming to a place like this means it’s their own prayer site.”

“Could that be related to this case? Did the god tell them or something.”

“I don’t know?”

Park Do-joon shook his head.

“We can’t know that.”

The existence of God cannot be known. Park Do-joon personally thinks there is a God. Because he is the person who regressed.

But apart from that, just because he regressed, just because there is a God, there was no possibility of tracking down the criminal with that.

“How nice would it be if we could ask God and track down the criminal. We’d all be unemployed.”

“Is that so?”

“I wish they would just tell us, but.”

Park Do-joon sighed deeply. Because it doesn’t work.

“Realistically, what we need to ask is not whether God told them. It’s how they knew about this place.”

“Huh?”

“There’s no such thing as coincidence in the world.”

Park Do-joon smiled bitterly.

The person who found the body was a male shaman who looked a bit old.

He frowned at Park Do-joon’s question.

“So, how did you know about this prayer site?”

“Yes, as far as I know, most prayer sites have a designated place.”

It’s not just about the good energy of the site. From the shamanic point of view, the gods settle in places with good scenery.

But no matter how you look at it, this place is deep in the mountains. It’s hard to say that it has good scenery.

“Ah, you misunderstood. The prayer site is not here, but further up, at the top of the cliff.”

“At the top of the cliff?”

“You can see the whole world from below.”

Park Do-joon nodded at that.

“But is that what you’re curious about?”

“There’s no way the shaman would have known about that place by chance. You wouldn’t have traveled around the country looking for prayer sites. Then there are two possibilities. Either God pointed it out, or you knew the place by chance.”

“By the way, you seem to know a little about our side.”

A Profiler by Trade